Young Job Seekers in China “Strained Korea-China Relations Affect Willingness to Work at Korean Comp

2018-01-15

Young
Job Seekers in China “Strained Korea-China Relations Affect Willingness to Work
at Korean Companies”

-KITA’s Shanghai Branch conducted and
analyzed a survey of participants of the job fair for Korean companies in China
-

According
to a survey conducted by the Shanghai branch of the Korea International Trade
Association (Chairman, Kim Young-joo) of the job seekers at the Job Fair for
the Korean companies in China, the strained relations between Korea and China
have significantly affected the willingness of job seekers to work at Korean
companies in China.

Of the 179
Chinese respondents (including ethnic Koreans in China) who responded to the
survey in December last year, 105 respondents (58.6 percent) answered that
"Korea-China relations have an impact on their willingness to work at
Korean companies” showing the short-term decline of job seekers who want to
work at the Korean companies due to the frozen relations between Korea and
China. In particular, it appears that ethnic Koreans (66.7%) are more affected
than the Han race (57.4%). In addition, of Koreans, the majority of respondents
(73.6%) said that the strained Korea-China relations have an influence on them
showing that Koreans have been mostly affected by the situation.

Among the
Korean companies, the most popular company was CJ (25.5 %), followed by Samsung
(25.3 %), LG (23.6 %), Hyundai (13.2%), Lotte (10.2 %) and others (2.2 %).
According to the preference by the ethnic group, 27.2 percent of the Han and
31.4 percent of ethnic Koreans in china are interested in Samsung while Koreans
are mostly interested in CJ with 36.1 percent.

Of the
participants who chose Lotte, the ratio the Han (12.8%) is higher than that of the
ethnic Korean (5.7%) or Korean (6.0%). The report says that it implicates that
the ethnic Koreans and Koreans are more concerned about Lotte compared to the
Han job seekers’ aversion to Lotte group.

The job
seekers are mostly interested in marketing/sales (46.4%), followed by
management (21.2%), and accounting/finances (4.2%). Others category accounts
for 23.3 percent, including a variety of jobs such as interpreter/translator
and design.

In terms of
expected monthly salary if hired, 29 percent of the participants said more than
10,000 yuan. The majority of them were Koreans (76.3 %) and the ratios of the
Han (18.4%) and the ethnic Korean (5.3%) were relatively low. It means that
Korean students studying China have absolutely high expectations for high
salary.

On the
other hand, the job seekers who are interested in Korean companies prefer to be
hired by Korean companies (52.0%) the most, followed by European companies
(14.6%), American companies (14.6%), Singaporean companies (10.1%), Japanese
companies (4.2%) and Taiwanese companies (3.8%) as foreign-invested
companies.

Park
Sun-kyung, director of Shanghai branch of the Korea International Trade
Association said "It appears that the strained relations between Korea and
China have concrete influence upon job seekers’ willingness to work at Korean
companies.” The director also stressed "The Korea International Trade
Association will hold a large-scale job fair in the first half of 2018 and
actively support the management activities of Korean companies."